My Daughter: Microcosm of America?

In 1972, I was still in high school. The war in Vietnam was as much a debacle as anything in our history and the President of the United States was less than veracious.

On the morning after election night 1972, I felt much the same as I feel this morning... not understanding how an electorate could accept an administration that deceived them and seemed -- at times -- to practically flaunt criminality.

There is a difference, though, now that I have over thirty years of life and living under my ever-loosening belt. This time I'm seriously concerned about how the results of this election are going to cause a severe shift in the direction of this country.

I recall having a little bit of the same fear that came with Reagan's re-election in 1984, but that election didn't bring an increase in Republican control of Congress. That election didn't bring the prospect of further movement of the Supreme Court to the right. That election didn't place hate-based referenda onto ballots eventually to be approved.

As I look at the results of this election, and try to somehow understand how the preponderance of a nation could vote against its own self-interests, I grow very worried. Very, very worried. My shoulders are slumped. I'm feeling an exasperation I've never felt before -- an exasperation that is based in the belief that 50% of this country's voters simply don't think about the nation (or the world, for that matter) as a whole.

I am probably no different than many of you in that regard.

This one hit me particularly hard, however, as my 17-year-old daughter -- while not a voter -- cheered on Bush/Cheney. There is something about raising children to be mindful of the environment and human life only to watch them give support to such a crooked administration that cuts very, very deep.

It's not that I would expect her opinions to be entirely in line with mine and her mother's. It's not that I would want her to blindly follow the political leanings of her parents. It's that I feel as though I failed as a parent to communicate the values that I believe to be more precious than those she seems to espouse: wealth and consumerism. Both of which, by the way, are not within the grasp of either of her divorced parents.

As I was thinking about all this, it occurred to me that my situation with my daughter is a microcosm of the country. My daughter's primary political influence is her cousin's husband, a man whose father's wealth has provided him a life of leisure and material goods. Cadillacs and HumVees are more attractive to a young woman whose parents' working lives are involved in the arts.

The headline of Nicholas Kristof's column in the today's New York Times seems to fit my daughter's model: Living Poor, Voting Rich.

Somehow, the failure that is the Bush administration has been perceived as worthy of support. And just as I need to truly understand why my daughter would support such an abomination (besides her belief that "the only reason the economy is so bad is because of 9/11"), so, too, does the Democratic party need to learn -- really learn -- what it is that has turned so many to vote against not only their own economic self-interests but for policies that weaken the United States' standing in the world as a promoter of peace and justice. The Democratic party needs to educate -- really educate -- people about the value of seeing themselves as world citizens in addition to being moms and dads and paycheck earners.

The Democratic party needs to educate America not only why the environment needs protection, but why it needs to be protected at some expense. A good environment needs to be recognized as a benefit -- something to value -- so that its protection and upkeep aren't seen as a foolish waste of tax money.

Somehow, the Democratic party has to educate the electorate well in advance of the next election. It needs to illuminate the electorate about the benefits of voting for nominees that represent the interests of the people.

But for the Democratic party to have a chance of making inroads into what appears to be an increasingly right-wing leaning electorate, it needs to truly understand why it voted as it did. It needs to go to the people and ask them why -- not merely rely on exit poll data.

The Democratic party needs to understand -- then explain -- exactly how the policies of the current administration affect them -- in ways that they will understand; in ways that they will feel a resonance.

There are moments in which I deeply believe that this election was stolen by voting machine tampering (a 5% advantage?!?), because it was so clear that Americans had no reason to elect Bush to four more years. But then, we're never likely to prove tampering existed, and more importantly, whining about conspiracies not only makes us look like sore losers, but it eventually leads to a "cry wolf" caricature that the Republicans will beat like a drum, and -- if the flip-flop caricature of Kerry has shown -- the American electorate will believe it.

We need to re-think how we communicate with the public so that the next time a George Bush lies to them, we don't have to spend so much time and energy and money convincing them he's lying -- they will already know it. And they will know that there is an alternative to the status quo.

It is very clear to me that we can no longer hope for -- much less expect -- the national media to provide a fair, honest and thorough discussion of the issues in a national campaign, as ratings and advertising dollars will dictate keeping things as muddied as possible. So we need to take it to the people, one community at a time, and it needs to happen immediately.